Certain Muslim intellectuals insist that Muslims have become a backward community in this country, and that the only way to promote their uplift is to demand reservation in government services.
What is strange indeed is that these same intellectuals uphold the Muslims as ‘the best community’ and with great fervour they call upon them to come forward and take charge of world leadership. Given that the Muslims are backward, such euphoric statements as ‘The task of leading the world will be entrusted to you,’ (Liya jaye ga tujhse kaam duniya ki imamat ka) are nothing but empty rhetoric. If the stage of world leadership has been waiting for them to set foot on it, then asking for concessions from the very people who are to be led by them sounds utterly ridiculous.
There is a saying in English which goes, ‘Politics is the art of the possible.’ In this world truly effective effort is that which is directed towards the possible. Straining after an impossible goal amounts to plunging towards destruction rather than heading towards success.
In the present circumstances, I find the securing of reservations almost impossible. The cause of reservation for Muslims was first taken up by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. His well-known 14-point formula presented in 1929 was entirely based on the securing of concessions. He wanted the Congress to give its assurance that the Constitution which would be framed after independence would guarantee the fourteen concessions drawn up by him. The eleventh of these fourteen points was that in the government services in India the proportion of Muslims would always be maintained in direct ratio to their population.
This proposal was made sixty five years ago. By conceding this demand the Indian leadership could have averted the division of the country. Yet it tolerated the division rather than accept the principle of reservation for the Muslims. Now what further power do the present Muslims possess to put pressure upon the Indian rulers to accede to a principle already rejected on the basis of the Constitution. History shows that, in reality, this demand is not going to be met in this country. Basing the construction of one’s life on something which is beyond reach is like constructing castles in the air, such as can never come into existence in this world of cause and effect.
Even supposing that the impossible were to become the possible, that is, Muslims were provided reservations according to the ratio of the population, the actual goal of removing the Muslims’ backwardness would still not be attained.
The circulation of wealth in India through government services is only about five per cent of the national wealth. And now, when the public sector is on the way out, being gradually reduced in terms of a more liberal economy, the actual number of Muslims employed in government service would further decrease. In such a situation, if the Muslims’ progress were to be bound by the supposed reservation, then even after having secured it, the problem of their backwardness would not be solved: out of 12 crore (120 million) Muslims hardly one per cent would earn their livelihood through government service. Then what would happen to the rest of the Muslim population? And if 99 per cent of the Muslims have to seek an alternative arrangement, why cannot that same arrangement suffice for the one per cent as well?
Certain Muslim intellectuals are constantly telling us that although Muslims comprise twelve per cent of the country’s population, in government services their proportion has not increased beyond two per cent over a long period of time. They are at pains to point out that even after the education and training of Muslim youths has been arranged in educational institutions, and coaching centres have been established to enable many Muslim youths to pass in competitive examinations with flying colours, the proportion of two per cent in the services shows no signs of increasing.
This is only half the truth. Muslim intellectuals stress the fact that the proportion of two per cent in government services is unchanged despite their best efforts, but they do not tell us anything about the qualified Muslim youths. Where are they standing in the unemployment queue? At which recruitment windows have they been lining up unsuccessfully? Not unless this figure is presented will the story be complete.
If our friends would take the time to ascertain this figure, they would learn that the simple reason for Muslims’ continuing to occupy two per cent of the available government posts is that they themselves, of their own choice, did not enter government service. They either left for the Middle East, Europe or America, as they knew only too well that in foreign countries they could command far better salaries on the basis of their qualifications. This exodus is common among both Hindu and Muslim youths on a large scale. To me, Muslims can find better guidance in the successful experience of the Sikh community instead of in the fanciful ideas of their misguided leaders and intellectuals.
Once I was present at a special meeting held in New Delhi at which many Hindus and Sikhs were present. One comparatively less educated Sikh complained that the government had been perpetrating great injustice upon the Sikhs; that at the time of India’s independence the proportion of Sikhs in the Indian army was 30 per cent, while today their ratio has been reduced in these services to only two per cent. Interrupting this lecture, another Sikh came up to say that his brother had no knowledge of the real situation. Then he explained that it was true that there were certain reasons for the central government not being interested in keeping them in the military, and as a result their numbers had come down to a mere two per cent. But this had proved to be a blessing in disguise. When the Sikhs found that demands and agitations were not going to yield any fruit, as the government had been acting upon a well-considered plan, and that no amount of our protest was going to have any effect upon its policy, they did some hard thinking and finally came to the conclusion that they must be willing to accept the government’s policy in the changed scenario.
Then he said, “Look at me, I was an officer in the Indian army, having retired recently from the service. After my retirement I received only seven lakh rupees as provident fund, etc. and with this sum I cannot even purchase a flat in Delhi. Whereas many of my friends who had opted to leave the services to take up business, now own palatial houses in Delhi, and drive luxury cars.”
The number of Sikhs in military service has no doubt dwindled but their economic condition is now better than it ever was. They form only two per cent of the population of the country, but they control about 20 per cent of the country’s economic resources. How did this come about? The reason was that they gave up the limited scope offered by the services in favour of the unlimited scope offered by business and industry. Many of them left for Europe and America, and are now earning far more than they could ever have done here. When such a course may be taken, why weep and wail over the paucity of posts available in government service?
If Muslims earnestly want to remove their economic backwardness, there is only one solution, and that is hard work. They should work hard in the fields of education, business and industry, and with greater preparation, must come to grips with the industrial age, which they have yet to enter.
They must fully appreciate that if a nation is left behind in life’s journey, there is only one way to compensate for this, and that is to put in extra hard work. For any such nation the choice is not between hard work and gaining concessions but between hard work and destruction. That is the law of nature, and the nature’s laws are immutable.
The demand for reservations and concessions is like asking the other group to keep their next generations from heading towards progress until such times as we (the Muslims) pull abreast of them and become their equals. You could not expect such a sacrifice even from your own real brother. Then how could you expect it from the members of any other community?
Muslims ought, therefore, to abandon the path of complaint and confrontation. They must exclude these words from their vocabulary, and should enter wholeheartedly, and with courage and conviction, into the modern fields of life. As soon as they are willing to do so, they will find a hundred doors opening up to them, and each of these doors will be far bigger and wider than the door of the government services. □
